Nifty ends above 8000 for first time, Sensex at new high

It was a heady start to the new series, new week and new month after a long weekend. After hitting the magical 8000-level, the Nifty ended at record high. The Nifty ended at 8027.70 (up 73.35 points or 0.92 percent) after hitting intraday record high of 8035. The Sensex closed at 26,867.55 (up 229.44 points or 0.86 percent), after an intraday record high of 26900.

ICICI Bank and L&T are top contributors to the Nifty gain. Except FMCG, all sectoral indices ended trade in the green. Capital goods, realty, metals led trade today.

Hearing underway on coal block allocation in SC. Attorney General seeks exemptions for 46 mines. The AG has given two Suggestions to SC in coal block allocation case. The government is keen on proceeding expeditiously for auction. The Supreme Court says there is no controversy on scrapping blocks where no work is done.

03:00pm Voltas and Motherson Sumi up over 2%

Bank of America Merrill Lynch reiterates buy rating on Voltas with an increased target price of Rs 305 per share. The brokerage also raised FY15/16E earnings per share forecast by 8 percent.

India Ratings & Research believes that the staggered diesel price hike since end October 2012 has paved the way for diesel price decontrol and that now is the right time for the government to decontrol diesel price and allow oil marketing companies (OMCs) to price diesel according to global rates. This will help the government achieve its fiscal consolidation targets.

02:40pm Ashok Leyland surges 4%

Ashok Leyland has reported total sales of 8,331 units in August, up 17 percent compared to 7,847 units in a year-ago period.

Post this declaration, these persons and the entity would not be able to borrow from the bank in future. They would also lose director-level positions in companies. Criminal proceeding could also be initiated against these persons if warranted.

02:20pm Bharti Infratel in News

Bharti Infratel is eyeing the acquisition of Vodafone and Idea towers in India. Sources suggest that the telecom tower infrastructures provider is in initial talks with both the companies for part or complete buyout while exploring various fundraising options.

Currently, Vodafone has 25,000 towers in India whereas Idea has 9,400 towers. However, valuation of towers is yet to be assessed.

Bharti Infratel will need to raise capital to a minimum of Rs 5,000 crore for the deal whereas, its current cash flows stands above Rs 2,000 crore.

Bharti Infratel intends to scale up in terms of number of towers in their presence and eventually, leave those towers to Idea and Vodafone as a cost-saving tool.

The timeline for completion of the deal has been set to November but may take slightly longer due to high valuations.

02:10pm Market Expert

Manish Chokhani, director, Enam Holdings is looking to utilize every correction to get deployed in the Indian equity market. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, he said the market will need the support of India Inc’s earnings to scale to higher levels from hereon.

“We do need earnings support to come through, all the predictions that I am seeing are of 15-20 percent growth, which means on a trailing basis this market will be trading at 20 times trailing earnings. So in a matter of 18 months, the market should be 50 percent higher from here and that is if nothing blows up in the world,” he added.

02:00pm Equity benchmarks gained further in afternoon trade with the Sensex climbing 221.16 points to 26859.27 and the Nifty rising 69.95 points to 8024.30 led by banks, auto, capital goods and oil & gas stocks.

The broader markets consistently outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gaining over a percent. About 1810 shares have advanced, 1000 shares declined, and 127 shares are unchanged.

Raamdeo Agarwal of Motilal Oswal expects the Nifty to hit 10000 before the elections next year.

Global economic data came in weak. European markets like Germany and France marginally in the red after the euro zone manufacturing PMI falling to a 13-month low of 50.7 while Spanish manufacturing data has slowed down for second straight month. Also in Asia, China manufacturing PMI slipped to 50.2 versus an 18-month high of 51.7 in July.